Why Bringing Back DDT to Fight Zika Mosquitoes Could Backfire

MoreWHO Says Further Investigation Needed on Sexual Transmission of ZikaSee All the Places Where the Zika Virus Has Spread Less than a century since DDT was first sprayed, the spread of the Zika virus through mosquitoes has left some wondering whether regulators were too quick to move away from the chemical. But public health officials warn returning the controversial pesticide to use could do more harm than good in some places. DDT, which first came into use as an insecticide in the 1930s, played a crucial role helping Allied forces protect themselves from mosquitoes carrying malaria in World World II and eventually helped eliminate the deadly disease from the U.S. But despite its successes, public opinion turned quickly in the 1960s as outrage grew over DDT’s potential risks to human health and animals and many countries joined the U.S. in ultimately banning its use. Today, health officials caution that while the benefits of the pesticide can outweigh health concerns in some contexts, spraying DDT to combat Zika would be premature and potentially very misguided. “It’s a difficult question, and it’s a very controversial question,” says Jonathan Chevrier, an assistant professor at McGill University, of how policymakers weigh the use of DDT to protect public health. “What the Zika virus is potentially doing is terrible. But using any pesticide needs to be considered very, very carefully.” Read More: All the Ways Humans Try to Kill Mosq...
Source: TIME.com: Top Science and Health Stories - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Zika Source Type: news